1121http://saiic.nativeweb.org/ayn/files/original/7ba8590382df9a99c60e9436c78f45f5.pdffd1d6c2682d8f97f9b6c465ad77d49d0PDF TextTextSELF- D ETERMINA TI ON
AND
T ERRIT OR Y
So That We, The Ye'kuana,
May Inhabit Our Land
In Venezuela, the Ye'kuana nation has organized itself against a legal invasion. In 1978, the government of
Venezuela, bypassing the Ye'kuana peoples, declared Duida-Murahuaca a National Park and OrinocoCasiquare a "Biospheric Reserve.· Until recently, however, other than declaring both areas under Special
Administration, its implementation never occurred. According to the Ye'kuana, government bureaucrats
have systematically ignored their historical presence and territorial rights make decisions on their behalf.
by Jose Felix Turon
Transcribed b y Simeon Jimenez Turon
have come to Caracas for the
first time in my life because our
land is being threatened. Where
I live, along the source of the
Cunucunuma Rivet; I have heard
rumors of invasions of lands close
to us and of futw·e plans to invade
other lands in the area. Therefore,
I, having always lived aloQg the
source of the Cunucunuma Rivet;
have come Caracas to write about
the historical bases of ow· territorial rights. I will speak about the real
owner of the land and about the origins of the land. This is how Wanadi
gave us a piece of the Amazonian
territory.
I
The Origins of Our Land
Slhe who made the earth is
called Wanasedume.
There was no earth
In the beginning
Wanadi (or Wanasedume) created the earth so that we, the
Ye'kuanans, may inhabit it, care for
it, feed off it, manage its resow-ces,
and so that we may die thet-e.
Wanadi said, "Take care of the land.
It belongs to you; do not destroy it ."
That is how the land became ours.
The owner of the material necessary to make the earth was
Mane'uda. With his material
Wanasedume created the earth. He
made it inhabitable.
16
That is how the earth was Cl-eated.
In the Beginning
Wanasedume realized that people on earth had nothing to eat.
Slhe brought the yucca from the
heavens, being the only one who
knew where in the heavens it was.
Slhe first planted it in Roraima, so
that everyone there could have food
to eat. Wanasedume then realized
that the Ye'kuanans, in their place
of origin (Kamasoii\a, notth of the
Cutinamo River), had no food.
Where slhe first brought the yucca,
Maarawakajaina, it did not grow.
Slhe then took it to the
Cunucunuma River where it grew
for 24 hours until it reached the
skies.
Therefore,
we,
the
Ye'kuanans, consider as our land
the territory that begins at the
Cutinamo River, as well as the
Cunucunuma, the Ventari, and the
Manapaire River.
Wanadi gave the yucca to
Kamasenadu. She was the owner of
all food. Theref01-e, it is only the
women, as the mothers or
guardians of agricultw-e, who cultivate the earth.
Wanadi planted the yucca in the
yard of a house that belonged to a
man by the name ofTudumashaka.
Many fruits were bot·n from the
trunk of that yucca t ree. The fruits
were like rocks. The tree grew so
big that no mot-e yucca could be
planted; people only ate the yucca
that feU from the tree. Seeds and
rain also fell. No longer able to grow
upward, the tree grew sideways.
Then the rock-hard fruits fell dangerously.
Tudunadu, son of Tudumashaka,
died picking up fruit to eat. Some told
Kamasenadu that people were dying,
mging her to 6nd a solution soon.
Kamasenadu agreed, granting permission to cut down the tree. The
chief of the felling was Yakawiyena.
He visited neighboring villages and
asked Waimene, a chief with workers, to help him. They worked one
day and night but the trunk did not
fall, one of its branches being
booked to the sky.
Kamasenadu was present at the
felling to collect branches.
Kamasenadu sent Wayuni (the
moose) and Ml\iadaku (the tiger) all
the way to Mudumunui\a to bring
water back to the place of the
felling. There, a number of other
chiefs were now also waiting.
Seeing that the trunk was not
sent
falling,
Kamasenadu
Wadl\ianiyu to discover what was
happening 'vith the trunk above.
Wadajaniyu returned, saying that
he had no teeth and could not cut
the branch hooked to the sky. Then,
Abya Yala News
�_ _ _ __,c_.=. = - F S E...:L
Kamasenadu sent Kadio (the squirrel), who was like people, advising
her to stand on top of the trunk so
that she could come down the same
way she went up while the branches fell off. Kadio was able to grab a
fruit and save it in her mouth
before chopping the branch with
her teeth. The tree fell and the
squirrel came down with it. Ever
since then, the trunk of the tree is
called Madawkajujo.
Kadio fell to her death at the
foot of the tl-ee in Tudumashaka's
yard. The fall was so violent, her
eyes welled up. This is why the
squirrel's eyes are welled up.
I<amasenadu quickly revived the
squinel by blowing on her.
When the t•-ee fell, Wayuni and
Majadaku were not present and
therefore did not get fruit 6·om the
tree. The main branch fell toward
chief Padamo. Majadaku, angry,
theatened to eat people if he could
not eat yucca. Wayuni, not having
heard Majadaku very well, said
that they would eat the leaves.
Majadaku then said that he too
would settle for leaves.
Kadio, after her •·evival, sat on
the t runk with the fruit hidden
inside her cheeks. She mocked
Majadaku for not getting any
yucca. Soon their insults turned to
fighting. They placed bets on who
could kill whom. The winner would
take the fruit as a p.-ize. Majadaku
jumped from trunk to trunk. Kadio
lay Majadaku a trap. She placed a
loose rock on his path. Majadaku
stepped on it and fell. All of those
involved in cutting down the tree
became animals: Majadaku (the
tiger), Wayuni (the moose), I<adio
(the squirrel), Wadajaniyu (the
"tuqueque"), Nukoyame (the woodpecker), and Dakono (the "tara
larga").
Vol. 9No. 1
0
E T E R M I N A T I 0
The food which Wanadi gave to
us was mean t for the Ye'kuanans.
All those who nowadays eat cassava took notice of where the
branches of the tree of life fell,
taking stems and sprouts from the
branches. Some did not know how
to properly cultivate yucca. The
land surrounding the Autana
River and the hills a.long its headwaters, and the land surrounding
the
Cutinamo,
Padamo,
Cu.nucunuma, and Ventuari l"ivers
are apt for the cultivation of
yucca. The lower regions (for
example, the savannas of the
Ayacucho Port, of the Esmeralda,
or even the lands no•·th of the
Orinoco Rivet·) are not.
This is the story of the beginnings of the domest ication of
yucca and other foods native to
the Orinoco and the Amazon
region-foods that all of us, peoples of the Amazon, eat today.
Second Demarcation:
Present-Day Boundaries of
the Ye'kuana Communities
We, the Ye'kuanans, have lost a
great deal of the land which
Kujuyani left us as his sacred
legacy. We must defend this sacred
legacy in the same way other religious groups demand respect for
their churches or places of worship. On our land, we, the
Ye'kuanans, should not pet·mit
others to indiscriminately and disrespectfully frequent our sacred
sites- as is the case in
Madawaka, Duida, Autana, parts
of P iaora, and in the Pem6n region
ofRoraima.
OuriJ1g the months of Mru'Ch,
April, and May, 1993, we the Ye'kuana
oommunities of Culebra, Akanafia,
Esmeralda,
Tookishanamai\a,
H
A H D
T
E R R I T 0
R Y
Watamo,
MOdeshijaina,
and
Huachamakare, met and agreed to
establish our communities' boundaries and to demand state •·ecognition of those boundaries.
Based on our people's collected
memory-embodied or condensed
in the historical wisdom of Jose
Felix Tur6n-six communities
were able to demarcate their
lands according to the teachings of
the story of origins. Th us, our
occupation of the lands we now
reclaim dates back many centuries. Our occupational •·ights
precede the Europeans' arrival
and the founding of the
Venezuelan State. Some national
constitutions of Latin America
have acknowledged these rights,
including Brazil (1988), Colombia
(1991), and Paraguay (1992).
No declaration is more transcendental or powerful than our
peaceful, productive, and conservationist occupation of the land
that Wanadi and Kuyujani left in
our custody.
In this age of"preservation" and
"sustainable management," it is
imperative that the Venezuelan
government respect our rights.
Granting us legal rights to the
lands we have occupied for centuries wou.ld not only be just and
right, but also a guarantee for their
"sustainable management."
We fear there could come a t ime
when we 'vill not be allowed to live
off the land. We do not want that
moment to an·ive, since our lands
are food, shelter, ow· life, and religion. To deny us our land would be
to amputate ou r soul and our
supreme reason for living. '0
Based on. an excerpt from
Esperando a Kuyujani by Sime6n
Jimenez and Abel Perozo (Eds) Sa.n
Pedro de LQs Altos, Venezuela, 1994.
17
�Dublin CoreThe Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.TitleA name given to the resourceVol. 9, no. 1 (Spring 1995)Dublin CoreThe Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.TitleA name given to the resourceSo That We, The Ye'Kuana, May Inhabit Our LandTypeThe nature or genre of the resourceJournal ArticleCreatorAn entity primarily responsible for making the resourceJosé Félix TurónDateA point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resourceSpring, 1995LanguageA language of the resourceEnglishEnglishZoteroTitleSo That We, The Ye'Kuana, May Inhabit Our LandItem TypeJournal ArticleAuthorJosé Félix TurónVolume9Issue1Pages16-17Publication TitleAbya Yala News: Journal of the South and Meso American Indian Rights Center (SAIIC)ISSN1071-3182DateSpring, 1995LanguageEnglishAbstract NoteIn 1978, the government of Venezuela, bypassing the Ye'Kuana peoples, declared Duida-Murahuaca a National Park and Orinoco-Casiquare a "Biospheric Reserve." According to the Ye'Kuana, government bureaucrats have systematically ignored their historical presence and territorial rights make decisions on their behalf.Attachment TitleSo_That_We_The_Ye'kuana_May_Inhabit_Our_Land.pdfAttachment URL[No URL]boundariesCunucunuma Riverself-determinationTerritoryYe'kuananyucca